God has always financed His mission through His faithful followers. From the early days, God required His people to give a tenth of their income to support the ongoing mission of worshipping God and doing His mission. This practice is called tithing, and many Christians still faithfully give generously in this way to support God’s work.

Jesus taught tithing, but said it needed to be accompanied by a kind and generous heart.

"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things."

Matthew 23:23 (NLT)

God never wants us to merely give money, but to genuinely be kind, merciful and to have integrity and faith.

God chooses to use us to advance His kingdom by giving us money, resources and challenging us to give some of it to the work of His mission. This really tests our hearts, because our natural inclination is to keep it all for ourselves. However, God wants to grow our hearts and make us generous like He is.

Giving is a test! Can we trust God to supply all our needs? Do we really believe that everything we have is a gift from Him? Will we have enough for all the things we want?

In the Bible the tithe was used to provide for the running of the Church and the poor. At times, separate offerings were taken up for missions and other projects. We call these special offerings.

Our greatest desire is that everyone would learn to give regularly and faithfully to the Church, as the Bible teaches. In this way, all the needs of the Church family are able to be met. We see stepping into generosity as a growing attribute of a maturing disciple.

With the developments in our campuses, we are asking people to give above and beyond a regular tithe. God has called us to continue to expand our buildings over the years because of the increasing number of people coming to our Church and for those who will come in the future.

The Challenge!

You might like to take on a giving challenge during the Light of the World season.

If you don’t give regularly to the Church, would you consider beginning to give regularly and faithfully in obedience to God’s Word?

If you give a little from time to time, would you consider aiming to tithe regularly?

If you tithe, would you consider giving a special offering to our our building project?

Whatever your situation would you ask God to give you a passion to be a radical, sacrificial giver? It is a generous people who will see this region transform.

It’s going to take a miracle!

One of the exciting parts of this season is that it can only happen if God steps in with a financial miracle!

At present, about half of the people who attend Grace don’t contribute in any way financially. Of all the people who do give, only one in five people have made any contribution to our building project.

We are praying that God will do a miracle in everyone’s hearts and that everyone will be able to contribute generously. When that happens, we believe we will be able to see a great miracle of provision.

God does a miracle when we put our money into His hands— would you please pray about what you might give over this season?

On Sunday 16 September, we will have our Giving Sunday. As part of the service, individuals and families will pledge the amount they feel God has asked them to give to this season.